Set Assembly Tutorials

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The hunting has been good. Not only has a small group of orcs been captured by the clan - they also managed to capture the leader of the rival orks together with the treasure they carried. As metal and magic is not allowed by the gods they will be sacrificed and thrown in the sacred whirlpool.

But the orks seem to have mounted a rescue mission. While the leader is still imprisoned and the first member of the clan gets sacrificed on the altar of the lizards they try an attack from two fronts. Too bad that the diversion at the front will be fruitless as the rear seems to have taken a wrong turn and ended up in the caverns of death - soon to join the skeletons which dwell there.

Picture 1: an overview of the whole layout (approx. 90% of all allowed pieces used)

Picture 2: the frontal attack - doomed to fail as blowpipes from the darkness will soon cause their victims

Picture 3: The prison cell with the ork leader and one of his henchman - guarded by two lizard men

Picture 4: The wrong turn - close but not close enough this group of orcs will soon find their own demise and will never launch their rear attack

Picture 5: The altar of the lizard men with the first victem as well as reinforcements coming up the ramp

You have traveled far into the underworld, to the source of the sacred Styx, river of forgetfulness, path of the dead. The guardians are numerous, these pitiful souls unable to pay the ferryman with anything but service. Their battlements are nothing but junk fished from the river. Their weapons are battered and wave worn. They are a cursed and motley lot, sorrowful with the weight of centuries.

How is it then that they have never known defeat? What do they sleeplessly guard? Could it be the hoard of Persephone's treasure cave, the forgotten riches drawn out of the river by the Charonodaemons? Or could it be the mysterious stone maw, a churning vortex alive with dark energy, consuming all memory, the eternal source from which these demonic waters emanate? Or most unlikely of all, could it be the crude wooden skiff tethered to the landing await its master's return?

Will you vanquish these adversaries or will you join them in defeat? Will you become legend or will the river consume every memory of you?

The Lizardmen lived a happy and prosperous life hidden away from others in a small cave at the shore of the great river. They were protected by an old idol of great power that should bring luck for the whole tribe.

This was a peaceful and happy living until the one day an evil necromancer found out about the idol, he knew about a
ritual to seize the power from the idol to create a staff of great power. So he send his skeleton minions into the cave
to take care of the idol. And so the battle begins that you see in the pictures.

Now with 6 years (soon 7) he is back with his first entry to the contest:

Photo 1: Again - a picture of the whole lay-out together with the designer

Photo 2: An overview

Photo 3: The fight at the bridge and the whirlpool

Photo 4: The fight for the goods

Photo 5: The Orc boss defending the treasure

What's interesting - both children went for fighting scenes on the bridge as well as someone in the whirlpool. Seems this is a 'must have'.
Both didn't opt for a space filling design but rather for a more open one.

Oh - and you didn't see the big battle fought in the dungeon the next day. We had some 60+ figures - unfortunately not all of them legitimate ones ...

I think the rules say - one entry per person. So if you see three entries from Thod (hopefully one more tomorrow) then they are actually from three disctinct persons as will be clear from the photos.

Doing the contest - and finding the time to have all the DF up for a while and not being interupted by the kids is a real challenge. I therefore opted to allow the kids to have their own entries as well. Didn't work straight away as my son didn't wanted any help from his sister. Well - good that daddy has soooooo much of DF - it was nearly enough for each piece twice.

So I was sitting in the middle of the room - handing one piece to my left / one piece to my right.

As there isn't a junior competition yet they will take part together with the adults.

I will start with Laura's entry (Age 4).

Photo 1 is the whole lay-out together with the proud designer

Photo 2 I really liked the use of the round cavern walls as enclosures or homes for monsters. This one 'moved' from the first photo. Originally it was around the Lizard Men (yep - the set-ups where also used for playing - and daddy wasn't fast enough to make photos before alterations happened)

hi guys, i do not think its worth to post because all the other entries are far to good but green knight and myself took some time to set something up and we will not hesitate to show you what our silly brains can do...(and its my first pictur post-hope it will work) so: ta ta here we go: the evil skeletons invade the lizardmangrotto of doom.

it took me ages to get the pictures to the right size so my partner in this construction - green knight hast to post some flavor text (what he won´t do before sunday) so hold on.

OK, here is my entry. I REALLY wanted to have a bordered swamp. Don't know why, but I just had to. There is nothing wrong with open water pieces continuing off the map, but I just didn't want to do that. And I was stubborn about it. I don't know why! And I wanted a second level. Those two things made this really hard. This is what I came up with.

(My camera would not cooperate. Between lighting and focus, I trashed many shots... I gotta learn how to take pictures better! This is the "best" of what I ended up with).

Pic 1 - This is the best shot of the overall layout. The top left is the entry into the caverns. The orc tribe came in that way, killed the two lizardmen guards (you can barely make them out in the pic), and proceeded through the cavern to the bridge that leads to the lizardmen's swamp. the advance party went ahead to scout the source of the "river" and investigate (bottom portion of photo). The lizardman chieftain came out from his lair on the right side of the photo and issued a war cry. The left side of the layout is where the lizardmen discard the bones of their foes. You can barely make out the pile of skeletons.

Pic 2 - This angle is from near "Bone island" and shows what I really wanted to do with this layout in the first place... have lizardmen sneaking around the swamp under an upper layer. Something about this shot reminds me of a Star Trek episode or something!

Pic 3 - Panning left to see the skulking lizardmen better. Just how many lurk there? The orcs are about to find out!

Pic 4 - Close up of the Lizardman Chieftain's war cry, and the Orc Chieftain's response! The lizardman with the stone axe is one of the skulkers. From this angle he doesn't even appear to be under the cavern above, but he is. The lizardman directly in front of the chieftain is the shaman, concentrating on the storm he is summoning.

Pic 5 - A shot of the ensuing rainstorm (summoned by the lizardman shaman!) as it approaches the swamp from the left side! (I am not sure how that light effect happened, but it certainly appears as a rain shower to me...)